Joe Biden Presidency thread *Please read OP - Threadbanned Users Added 4/5/21*

Nobody released the Taliban Leaders in exchange for a photo.

They were released as part of the February 2020 peace deal , a deal that took years to broker and followed nine rounds of US-Taliban talks in Qatar.

5,000 Taliban prisoners and 1,000 Afghan security force prisoners were exchanged as part of the deal.

A deal that the Taliban didnt uphold in recent months and constantly broke yet Biden bizarrely upheld his end of the bargain.

Your original take was that he said no mistakes were made and yet the quote you provided said they would look at in hindsight. Why would you look at something you know you made no mistakes with again?

There is a bomb threat with a Pickup truck driver threatening to blow up the library of Congress

UPDATE – 12:45 p.m. ET: Multiple reports indicate that the suspect held a now-deleted Facebook Live broadcast where he made statements against the government and President Joe Biden. Huffington Post’s Ryan Reillyobtained a sample of the man’s video where he declares “I’m ready to die for the cause.”

You’ll have to mention it in the other thread then. He’s not allowed here and he’s blocked himself from being challenged by my dissenting views.

Obviously, Biden had the mid-term elections in mind when he announced the withdrawal of American military personnel from Afghanistan. But isn't abandoning Afghan women and girls to Taliban rule going to have an impact on American women's voting preferences, i.e. the sisterhood, girls sticking together?

I think actually the last couple of days have probably lessened the noise of people calling it a failure.

There wasn't mass attacks immediately as the Taliban took power. There wasn't pictures of Americans trying to escape and being stopped and killed while doing so.

The Taliban at least attempted to appear somewhat non-radical in their earliest statements.

Control of the Airport in Kabul was re-established.

And none of this is to say that the Americans/Biden should be proud of how they handled it. They should have done it in a staged manner and at least attempted to facilitate passage for those who would be in the most danger and who had worked with them while they were there. I'd hold Biden more to account for not having advocated immediately in Obama's second term, after Bin Laden had been killed, that America should leave then.

Afghanistan unfortunately is likely to be in the news for the wrong reasons over the next several years and my heart genuinely does go out to anyone there who is likely to be repressed by the Taliban, Biden seems to understand the need for action to try to help those who need support going by his comments below, but it remains to be seen just how this might be done, and what role America will play in it. If I was in Afghanistan and worried about my future, this wouldn't give me a whole lot of comfort.

It is interesting to watch Right wing America tie itself in knots with accusing Biden of doing something that they lauded Trump for doing. That clown called for Biden to resign in disgrace when Biden did exactly what Trump said should be done. And Niki Haley's comments about dealing with the Taliban showed their hypocrisy in bright lights once again.

I don't often quote The Guardian commentary pieces but this I thought was a well written point. On the Trump supporters, yes it's hypocritical but the signal the manner this was done sends a Trumpish message to American allies and possible allies

Shadi Hamid: ‘Biden saw Afghanistan as a nuisance’

Joe Biden was dealt a bad hand on Afghanistan. But instead of modifying the withdrawal timeline or ensuring close military-to-military coordination with the Afghan government, he saw Afghanistan as a nuisance to be done away with as soon as possible. After all, he had been complaining about American involvement since Barack Obama’s first term, when as vice-president he favored a near exclusive focus on counter-terrorism operations against al-Qaida.

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It is little surprise, then, that Biden and his top aides seemed indifferent as the Taliban marched toward Kabul. This wasn’t their fight. Indifference is one thing. Cruelty is another. In his speech on Monday, Biden showed his trademark stubbornness, refusing to admit fault or responsibility. Moreover, he blamed Afghans for lacking the will to fight for their own future, despite over 60,000 Afghan military and security forces having perished in precisely that fight over 20 years.

It may be tempting to dismiss this as an unfortunate but understandable logistical failure. If only. Optics matter. Narratives matter. Is this how America treats its friends and allies when it grows tired of them? This is the question on minds of officials in foreign capitals everywhere. As Politico Europe reported, “Even those who cheered Biden’s election and believed he could ease the recent tensions in the transatlantic relationship said they regarded the withdrawal from Afghanistan as nothing short of a mistake of historic magnitude.” Even if this isn’t how European officials and others should interpret Biden’s nonchalance, they are perceiving it nonetheless. And perceptions – or misperceptions – have a way of creating new, darker realities

Biden had no way of winning here. He, literally, was damned if he did and damned if he didn't. If he'd torn up Trump's plan, he'd have been called a "warmonger". If he goes ahead with it, it looks bad as well, because there was no plan b and the disastrous groundwork had already been laid by the previous admin.

I suspect, though, that in a year nobody will really care. Most of America wanted out. They're now out. The Republicans might try to make capital out of this, but they can shut the fuck up. It was their plan that was carried out and the exact same thing would have happened if they went ahead in May. They know this, which is why they've been relatively quiet about it.

I doubt it, getting out of Afghanistan is popular, getting it done so soon into the presidency is smart, less sons going off to a dangerous unpopular GOP war is nothing but a win.

I'm not sure doing what he said he would do is in any way weak, the previous administration screwed the pooch here, releasing and negotiating with the Taliban and pulling troops out early meaning either another invasion level of troops would need to be sent in or get out, the latter was the only real decision to be made here.

But it would be good to see what you define as a "strong president" to see who it matches and if a preening draft dodger fits that criteria somehow.

Weeks and weeks in the first year of presidency is fine, it's already dropping down the news feeds and almost seems to be an orderly disorderly exit with most realizing that there was very few options here. The fact that this was trump's plan and has been carried out relatively proficiently so far makes it very hard to blame Biden (the purist part of the DNC may complain but there's 1-3 years to get them energetic enough to get out and vote and they're not going to switch to the GOP).

Offer some leadership perhaps?

The buck stops with him... apparently, and the next minute he throws everyone else under the bus.

He has said on numerous occasions that no one saw the fall of Kabul coming, yet we have reports of many people inside, saying Biden ignored all warnings and pleas from those in the know.

The guy is turning out to be a fraud.

To be honest, any reports I've seen regarding reports of Kabul falling quickly gave come from people inside Afghanistan, who give their info to someone, who passed it on to someone else, etc who gives it then to the POTUS for a decision to make.

To me it seems like the people giving the briefings Did not consider some of this info relevant, or didn't agree, and didn't pass on the info.

You're implying there's something he could do now, or could have done once it became clear the Taliban takeover was happening way quicker than anticipated. "Offer some leadership" is a bit vague.